This era of psychological horror games returning to the classic style of gameplay seems to be continuing through another new title from, of course, another indie developer. Jukai Studio has dropped a surprise title for horror fans called Stray Souls on to Steam and even included a free demo to play. With little-to-no announcement prior to this release, it definitely caught us off guard, but after playing through the demo… I have to admit that I am beyond intrigued and ready for more!
If you want to see the demo played through in its entirety, the video on the top of this article features my playthrough of it.
Gameplay
The demo for the game drops you at the beginning of an area featuring a small street next to a graveyard and playground. Given that these would not be a typical layout, I would say it is safe to presume that this would be in an area that the final version of the game will associate with a church grounds. Decoration aside, you load up as a protagonist who takes a call from his female colleague that has a playful banter with him leading him to do a simple task - find and pull a rope hanging from a tree.
This simplistic task that rewards players with the view of fireworks is a great way to give the opportunity to play with the controls and figure out things, like interacting with objects in the environment. The command prompts to do these actions definitely helped as well.
Once you have controls figured out and the little fun banter is over, the call continues to give you your first task in the game and goes over your reason for being there. Now that you know you need to get into the playground and find that you need a key, you begin taking the steps to find it. These steps will eventually lead you to finding your first weapon, a handgun. Given that you had to dig through trash to get it, there is definitely a hint with this action that they are going to be doing things slightly different than other games in this genre, although with the same concept.
Opening the playground will greet you with the first enemy of the game - well, a horde of them actually! Since you already got to test out using the weapon in order to gather the key for the playground, you will already know how to use the handgun enough to shoot and reload. Defeating all the enemies will bring the game back to a relaxed moment where you can explore the playground and find the valve wheel you need to proceed.
Head back to the start and use the valve wheel to turn off the steam in the power room so you can activate the power that will open the door you need to get through. This will be a small puzzle with no hints around to help you solve it. There is a joke line that the protagonist says, but it is not a hint for the puzzle.
After you get the power on and make your way to the cemetery, a ‘fun’ event happens along the way and the demo comes to an end.
Expectations
While I enjoyed most of the demo, there were definitely a lot of things that needed some improvements. Given the demo is listed as a very early alpha build, I will just mention what I expect to change as the game is continued to be built.
There were a lot of animations missing, including the one where you get in the car to find the key. All your character does is sit in the car and then get out without actually looking around. These are finer detail animations, but once the game is finished they will definitely be expected - even if they are aiming to have a return-to-the-classics type feel.
I was a bit upset with the puzzle set up altogether. Of course, I was happy to see that they are including this element in the game, but there was no hint anywhere to tell you what to do. While I get that the puzzle was simple and small, even those puzzles had some type of small clue that guided the player in an indirect way. I hope this is not going to be a consistent practice with this game and that future puzzles will have hints provided on how to solve them - preferably in the form of riddles or strange symbols that correlate with the game itself.
The monsters spawn was incredibly random. With how big those enemies were, it makes no sense that we didn’t see them before opening that playground. Not only was there one in the playground itself, but there were others strewn about the whole level and in order to get into the playground you will have circled that map at least once. If they are going to have monsters spawn in places after you have already been there, they need to have some way of appearing that isn’t just “poof, I have arrived!” Forming out of mud, busting through a wall, digging up from underground, or literally anything else will work. A cutscene is not a sufficient way to make enemies appear. - Now, for the demo itself, it was a great way to shockingly introduce an enemy to the player and bring a scare factor to the demo experience. I am just saying it will not be a proper practice for a finished product.
Verdict
Stray Souls provides a demo that can easily make any horror fan get excited to see it reach completion! There are a lot of elements in this game that the classic horror games all had and they seem to be aiming to bring new light to those gameplay elements with a new story and experience along with it. There are some issues with the demo, but nothing that really hurts the experience it brings. For an alpha experience of the game, it is downright impressive! I look forward to what the finished version of this game will be like.
